The Southampton Town P.A.L. announces the upcoming football season will be dedicated to one of its icons! While the holidays are usually a festive time, this year the P.A.L. family as well as the Mitchell/Sulzinski family suffered a tragic loss with the devastating passing of Barbara Mitchell-Sulzinski.

Barbara was our secretary, our Sergeant Of Arms, and the “straw that stirred the drink.” We will be hard pressed to replace her – probably with a minimum of three people, I would think. She was always on top of things and prided herself on that. She was probably the strongest person I’ve known and she dealt with her fate only with her immediate family. We never knew until the end.

Sport is and always will be just a means to deal with life and, in this case, death. God has a job waiting for Barbara and I’m sure she’ll be in a similar position in heaven.

Our condolences go out to her family. The Southampton Town P.A.L. will be doing more in the future to acknowledge her work. It’s just too soon to absorb. Rest in peace, Barbara, and make sure the angels are properly fitted for equipment.

DICK HERZING,

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Slanderous Accusations

To The Editor,

Gregory Blass has seen fit, in his letter to The Independent in the December 19 issue, to point out that I am being evicted from my residence at Hidden Cove Motel due to “disgraceful and disruptive” behavior while, I presume, fully knowing that he cannot document ONE single incident of such on my part. Not ONE. Neither can his business associate, my landlord, LAML Realty, whose managing agent has leveled the same slanderous accusations about me in another publication.

Mr. Blass should take a deep breath, remind himself that in his quest to do “God’s work” he must, from that lofty perch, suffer gladly the fools who don’t think he is doing anything of the sort. More seriously and accurately, however, Mr. Blass should really remind himself that all he really is, is a bureaucrat who is intemperately besotted by his fantasies concerning what he has perpetrated here at Hidden Cove.

Mr. Blass further asserts that I will “not be homeless when evicted” and that I “know it.” Really, Greg? How do you know what I know about myself and my situation? Have you, any of your minions, or perhaps your “non-profit” partner Community Housing Innovations ever ONCE expressed the tiniest bit of concern about me or my neighbors (the 87-year-old woman and her disabled daughter)? The answer is a resounding “no,” which forces one to conclude that all of this sanctimonious concern about homeless people is so sacrosanct that a little bit of it can’t be sliced off in order to help somebody like me or my neighbors, who are being displaced by this guy’s social service agency.

Pardon me, Greg, while I fruitlessly attempt to wrap my head around the concept of being evicted by a homeless shelter operator -- for no other reason than that I happen to (inconveniently for Mr. Blass, CHI and LAML) live here. Am I getting in the way of something, uh, bigger? Maybe THAT’S it!

Greg fails to appreciate something else: I have actually lived here from day one of the conversion. Let’s say that I have seen stuff and maybe there will be more about that in a little bit. Just observations, mind you, gathered by a cranky, ill-behaved crackpot who doesn’t see the world in quite the same way as a pontificating bureaucrat does. My failing is probably attributable to the fact that I cannot bring myself to see the world from the point of view of someone who is charged with the responsibility of distributing a seemingly bottomless pit of someone else’s money to someone, for example, who’s just off a bus from Miami and went straight to DSS to demand support. Just sayin’ . . .

Finally, and most contemptibly, this bureaucrat deigns to quote Jesus Christ (“Whatever you do to the least of mine, you do to me”) in a seeming attempt to sanctify what he does or, in the cases of me and my next-door neighbors, what he DOESN’T do.

Let me tell you who has done “God’s work,” Greg: Jesus, Mother Theresa, Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Dr. Jonas Salk, Mahatma Gandhi first-responders, et al. None of these monumentally important people would choose to oversee the eviction proceedings necessary to heartlessly evict an old woman from the place she has called home for almost five years. I am a person who, if he does nothing else well, knows how to use an above average vocabulary. I nonetheless cannot find the words to more fully describe what a smarmy fool this guy is.

NICHOLAS SARIDAKIS

Editor’s Note: The Independent chronicled the situation of the letter writer and his elderly neighbor in issues dated 12/12/12 and12/19/12. Both are available online at www.indyeastend.com under “archives.” Gregory Blass, who is the Suffolk County Commissioner of Social Services, wrote a letter to the editor published in our 12/19/12 edition.

Hot Calendars

Letter to the Editor,

The Donald T. Sharkey Memorial Community Fund would like to thank Kitty Merrill for “shooting the shoot,” and spreading the word that “The Original Mr. Amagansett Calendar” would be available in 2013, with all proceeds from the sale going to the Fund.

We are not unmindful of the devastating effects of Sandy, and the economic and health-related struggles that many of our community members went through in 2012, and continue to have. The Fund was created in an effort to help alleviate some of these struggles for individuals in need, and to give to causes that Don Sharkey held dear and volunteered his own time and effort towards.

It was a wonderful surprise that your paper chose to feature our endeavors just before the holidays, and we would like to thank Kitty for having fun with us, and each and every person who donated their faces, time, and talent to raise money to help others. The calendars are selling like hotcakes for $20, and will be available at the Mr. Amagansett Pageant on February 2 at the Stephen Talkhouse. Doors open at 6:30 PM. There’s still time and room for talented men (and Rick Murphy) to perfect their acts. Thanks again and Happy New Year!

BRITTON BISTRIAN EMPTAGE

Donations For Fireworks

Dear Editor,

Can you imagine summer without the spectacular annual fireworks? Each year our all-volunteer East Hampton Fire Department proudly sponsors this show and is responsible for raising money through your generous donations.

Although the date has been moved to the end of the summer (by order of the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the breeding grounds of endangered shore birds) attendance to the show has not remained steady, but has increased. Sadly, our donations have dropped by half.

Fire Chief Felix Dominy started the EHFD annual fireworks display in our community over 90 years ago. We think the show is a wonderful way to celebrate our nation’s independence.

The EHFD invites you to our fireworks show on Saturday, August 21, 2013; the rain date is the next day.

We look forward to your support and thank you for making this event possible.

RAYMOND J. HARDEN

Editor’s Note: Donations can be mailed to the department at One Cedar Street, East Hampton 11937.

We Can Do It

Dear Rick,

A tragic event has taken place in small town America, especially to the most innocent among us – educators and small children are gone and our hearts are torn forever. We are all less rich because of the sorrow. What took place in this small American town is beyond comprehension. A shame has fallen upon us.

Can we fix this? Where do we begin? Let’s revisit our values. Let’s do better, let’s try harder to overcome this. One and all, all of us can make this world safer. Can we ever again leave our doors open or have no fear of unexpected harm?

We can build a new house with all of God’s treasures inside. Start again, and pick ourselves up. We can do it.

Love has flown away from us, forever. I wonder how do you mend a broken heart? Our children – our loved ones – are our future.

DIANNE BALDUCCI

School Guards

Letter to the Editor,

The recent tragedy at a Connecticut school shooting points out the need for stronger security measures to help prevent or mitigate loss of life at our schools.

The emergency plans implemented at schools can minimize injuries and deaths, but cannot prevent them when confronted with determined shooters. Buzzers, cameras, identification cards and sign-in books will not stop shooters from forcibly entering schools.

One security measure that could counter the actions of shooters is the presence of armed security officers in every school. Granted, the killers might try to shoot the officers first, but the killers could be focused on shooting the students and teachers, and the officers could take out the shooters.

Another possibility would be to have trained administrators with weapons available to them in a locked and secure location.

Mentally competent people and non-felons may purchase weapons in accordance with the Second Amendment of our Constitution, which allows citizens to bear arms, and this right should continue. However, should ordinary citizens, like the Newtown shooter, be allowed to purchase a bulletproof vest? The purchase of bulletproof vests should be a huge tipoff on the purchaser planning a shooting.